Rachael, It's All or Nothing

11: Babe It’s You [And] I

I have to admit, New York is impressive. Although the entire city of Manhattan seemed to be on a constant surge of energy, I was almost enthralled in the way people scurried to where they wanted to go.

I pressed my face against the window of the taxi, looking out at all the lights. The sun was still high in the sky, and as we headed up towards Times Square, I grew more excited.

“Are we going out tonight?” I asked excitedly, looking briefly over my shoulder before back out the window.

“Where are you going to get in, Rae? You’re underage.”

That took the wind out of my sail. I sat down, sighing desolately. “I’m hungry,” I said to the air in front of me. The cabbie’s gaze ghosted over to mine through the rearview mirror, but he said nothing. Jonathan did, though, and his answer surprised me.

“Where do you want to go?” He asked casually.

I looked over at him, naturally, when I heard no mockery in his voice. Studying him carefully, I found no hidden glimmer in his eye, and no hidden agenda in his smirk. He was just staring at me calmly, his wide brown eyes just… staring.

It was unnerving.

I turned away. “I’m not hungry anymore.” That would have been an acceptable thing to say, had my stomach not growled right after.

Kody cracked up laughing on my left, and from her other side, I heard, “something tells me your lying.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered sourly, crossing my arms over my chest.
---
God, even our hotel room was huge. Heaven forbid I remember the name of the place we’re staying in, but it was nice.

“Kody, we are sleeping on this bed!” I sang happily, while bouncing onto the closest bed to me.

“I like this one better,” she informed me, putting her suitcase on the other bed.

I stopped bouncing and gave her an evil look. “You only like that bed because it isn’t the one I picked.”

She gave me the most innocent look she could muster, which only added fuel to my slowly burning fire. “This one is truly nicer to sleep in.”

I put my hands on my hips. “They’re the same bed.”

“Fine. Sleep with Jonathan.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but Jonathan beat me to it. “Why are we sleeping with me?”

I turned to look at him; why, I wasn’t sure. There he was, standing by the door, holding a t-shirt. Did I mention he wasn’t wearing a shirt? Well, he wasn’t. I should have shrieked and childishly yelled, “my eyes! My eyes!”, but really, he wasn’t exactly fat or anything.

I tuned back into reality just as Kody said, “and that’s why Rachael’s going to sleep with you.”

From the darkly amused grin on his face, I knew Kody had something that I wouldn’t have said even if I was joking. I sighed, and leapt over to the other bed. “I have the sudden need to scour myself.”

Both of them laughed at my obvious displeasure.

I spend the next five minutes staring off into space as Kody and Jonathan unpacked their things. I could practically feel some tension in the air, which is why I snapped to and looked around the room. My eyes caught on Jonathan first, who gave me a look that meant he had caught it too. At the same time we looked over at Kody who had an unreadable expression on her face as she stared at her phone.

“I have to go,” she said quietly, brushing past me towards the door. Her leg touched mine as she walked out, and I could practically feel the hostility from her. Something was wrong.

I tired deafly to call her, but she was gone before I had a chance to even form the words on my tongue. “What was that?” I asked.

I had meant it to be a rhetorical question, but he answered it anyways. “You’re her best friend, shouldn’t you know?”

The I’m-looking-down-on-you tone was in his voice when he spoke to me, which I caught, and threw right back at him. “Do you know what’s going on with Patrick all the time?”

“No, but we’re guys. Girls are just supposed to know.”

I stood up and put my hands on my hips. “That’s a little sexist, as well as an urban myth. Females are not emotionally psychic. What part of me looks like your early 1900s version of a housewife?”

He shrugged. “The same part of you that’s going to scream and demand I kill that spider that’s on the floor beside you.”

Sure enough, without so much as a confirmation of the location of the arachnid, I jumped out of the way and shrieked. When I caught sight of the little black thing, I got up on the bed, leapt to the other one, and stood there as I pointed in horror at the spot. “Be a man and kill it!” I yelled.

Jonathan turned and put his hands on his hips in a similar fashion to what I’d done. “That’s sexist.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Squish him.”

“What if it’s a she? I don’t like squishing females.”

“Really?” I snapped before I could help myself, “because that is not what it seemed like to me in your apartment the other day.”

I froze and covered my mouth with my hands. Neither one of us had expected me to say that, so he was utterly gleeful, to put it nicely.

“So you do remember that day,” he drawled patronizingly.

My face heated up, and I narrowed my eyes. “I never denied it.”

He chuckled. “You certainly didn’t.”

“What was that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” he paused, as he got up onto the bed, cornering me against the wall, “that you want me just as much as I want you.”

I shrieked. “Jonathan, it is now on the bed. Kill it before it kills me.”

He sighed and backed up from me. I noticed, with a twinge of pain, that the expression he wore on his face right now is the exact same one he had when he stopped the elevator. Had I done something wrong again?
---
“Jonny Boy, I think we’re lost,” I crowed happily, skipping down the sidewalk after him.

He said nothing, but the way his back tensed meant I knew he heard me. After Kody’s impromptu leave from the hotel, Jonathan and I decided to go and find somewhere to eat. However, that had been an hour ago. We had passed by several hot dog vendors, and Jonathan had proclaimed that it was nasty, and we weren’t going to eat from there.

Fine. I would waste away and starve.

“I’m still hungry,” I complained.

His back tensed again. I found it fascinating. “Are you angry?” I asked.

“No,” he answered gruffly.

I grinned so widely, I think my cheeks might have cracked. I skipped around in front of him, successfully cutting off his path. “You are a man and you are lost. Why does that surprise you?”

“We aren’t lost.”

“Yes we are,” I sang, “and you, love, are in denial.”

“I am not.”

“Oh, don’t pout. It’s unbecoming for a man of your stature.”

Even through his sunglasses, I could see his eyes narrowing at me. The fact that he was lost was getting to him, and the fact that I was teasing him about it probably wasn’t helping at all.

“Oh my God,” he droned, stepping around me.

“Come on! It’s wounded your manly ego to know you’re not providing me with the basic necessities of life!” I called after him.

He reached back and flipped me off. I couldn’t have been happier.

I began skipping after him, and I was nearly at him, when I noticed a bunch of pigeons gathering in a tight, frenzied circle. “Hey Jon! Pigeons!”

“Don’t touch –” His warning came too late, because as I bent down to touch one, the bunch of them flipped out. I shrieked, and ran towards Jonathan. I could hear the flutter of their wings behind me.

“The fucking flamingoes are crazy!” I yelled.

A wide grin broke out across his face as he caught me by the shoulders and spun me around. I squinted around his shoulder at the pigeons. They were watching me.

“Pigeons,” he said, dragging my attention to him.

“What?”

“You called them flamingoes – they’re pigeons.”

I scowled at them. “They are also going to remain nameless because they just tried to kill me.”

“I did tell you not to touch them,” he informed me, an amused tone in his voice.

I mimicked him. “Aren’t they supposed to be tame or something? I mean, they live in New York around millions of people.”

He eyed me. “Do you want to test this theory out at the zoo? I’m sure the lion would like to play.”

He had, of course, been kidding. I knew that much. But I clapped my hands and bounced on my feet. “Can we go to the zoo?”

I don’t think he expected me to actually ask, because he remained fairly straight without moving a muscle. I ought to see if he’s breathing, actually. I poked a finger into his side. “Can we Jonathan, please?”

He sighed after a moment, and I immediately knew I had won. “Thank you!” I cried, bouncing around to his side and grabbing his arm. “Taxi!” I yelled, waving madly out in the street.

Seconds later, a yellow cab pulled up in front of us. I bit my lip and looked over my shoulder at him. “Ready, Jonny Boy?”

He rolled his eyes. “We’re going to the zoo, Rachael, not getting married.”

I grinned widely and pulled him towards the motor vehicle.
---
I clutched a large, fluorescently pink flamingo in my grasp. It was almost as big as I was, and bore a striking similarity to the actual bird.

“I’m going to name it Jonathan.”

Jonathan looked at me, clearly appalled at my choice. “But why?”

I shrugged, toying with one of its wings. “Because you bought it for me?”

He nodded, accepting my answer. I hugged the bird close to my chest as I followed after him. We had been at the zoo since I suggested it, and that was a few hours ago. I managed to get Jonathan to stop being such a pansy and just buy food from a vendor, and we spent the time walking around.

It was strange, but I didn’t kill him, and I didn’t feel the need to, either. Truth be told, I was getting a little tired, and couldn’t quite bounce around excitedly like I had been before. I must’ve been either really quiet or really slow, because Jonathan turned around, and I bumped into him.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m tired,” I admitted.

We had long since retired our sunglasses, so I could see his brown eyes doing some quick calculations. “Get on my back,” he instructed, turning around.

“Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t want to get on your back.”

“Would you rather be on the front?”

I glared at his back, but I knew he couldn’t see it. “Come on Rachael, you aren’t fat enough to break my back, or anything. I can handle carrying you.”

“Enough,” I repeated. I wasn’t fat enough.

He heard my mumblings, and sighed. Once he was again facing me, he looked at me. “You aren’t fat at all Rachael, okay? I’m going to carry you because quite frankly, a person with no legs is walking faster than you.” And then he turned back around.

Well, if I was doing it for him…

With my arms securely around his neck, and my knees gripping his waist, we once again began walking. I tried to ignore the people giving us odd looks as best I could with my eyes open, but I couldn’t do it. People recognized Jonathan, and were probably wondering who I was.

I breathed out slowly, feeling myself slowly slip towards unconsciousness. “Why a flamingo?” I mumbled into his shoulder.

I shifted on his back as he adjusted me. “To make sure you remember the difference between that and a pigeon.”

I laughed tiredly at how quietly he was speaking. If anything, it was making me more sleepy. I pressed my head into the side of his neck, welcoming the warmth even though it was starting to get nippy out.

“Are you still wearing my watch?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

I yawned, pulling myself closer to him. “To remind me that there are times when I actually want to be around you.” Like now, I added silently.